The bouzouki is a plucked string instrument with a round body and a long fretted neck, played with a plectrum. Its paired metal strings give a bright, ringing, slightly “weeping” sound, while a virtuosic tremolo lends the melody a continuous singing quality.
The bouzouki became the principal instrument of rebetiko — the 20th-century urban Greek song that was born in the port districts and sang of the fate of ordinary people, of parting and nostalgia. Today Greek music of any genre is unthinkable without the bouzouki. A related Irish bouzouki entered the Celtic tradition as well, and the instrument itself belongs to the great Mediterranean family of long-necked lutes that also includes the Turkish saz.
